Sectional floor



March 10,' 1936. c; TRAMILL SECTIONAL FLOOR Filed April 2o, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A TTORNE Y.

Patented Mar. 10, 1936 I UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE SECTIONAL FLOOR Charles Tramill, Kansas City, Mo.

Application April 20, 1933, Serial No. 666,991

9 Claims. (Cl. 20-6) This invention relates to oors and more parlugs therein as later described. The spacing ticularly to removable floors including platformblocks I may be located in suitable position to like sections that may be installed when wanted serve as guides for locating the pillars. and disassembled for storage. The respective pillars are formed in suitable The principal objects of this invention are to heights and shapes to engage portions of any 5 interlock sections of removable flooring and to irregular supporting surface and level the girdsecurely retain floor sections and supporting ers. means in rm engagement when installed for The pillars I1 and I9 at the ends of the jointed enhancing the stability without reducing the girders are preferably removably attached to the 10 resilience of the floor. strips by suitable means such as bolts 23. The 10 Other objects of theinvention will be apparent pillars I8 at the joints may be removably in the course of the following description of one mounted on one of the strips of a pairto be carform of apparatus embodying the invention and ried by the pair when the girders are hingedly illustrated in the accompanying drawings wheremovedv to be opened or folded, and the pairs of in: strips are disassembled o-r reassembled. The 15 Fig. l is a perspective view of a floor compristongues of the pillars I8 overlie the abutting end ing supporting members and surfacing secportions of the hinged strips and reinforce the tions constructed in accordance with this invenjoints.

tion, the board surface being partly broken away The hinged connection between end-abutting and selected board-supporting strips being shown pairs of strips forming a girder is provided by 20 fragmentarily to better illustrate the supporting hinges 24 having straps mounted on the outer structure. faces of aligned strips and pvotally connected Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective fragmentary by removable hinge pins 26 whereby the girder view of one of the supporting members illusmembers may be folded laterally. Hinges are trating an anchor and a clamp for locking the preferably provided on both sides of the jointed 25 surfacing sections in supported position. girder, whereby the pins of either of opposed Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a board supporthinges may be removed for folding the girder on ing frame mountable on the supporting members the opposite hinge.

shown in Fig. 2, some of the boards being re- The anchor members above referred to commoved and one being shown fragmentarily to prise lug-like blocks of wood, illustrated in de- 30 better illustrate construction. tail in Fig. 5, and including wedge-shaped bodies Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the foot- 28 resting on the ends of the strips and tongues ing blocks of the jointed floor-supporting strips. 30 depending from the bodies into the ends of Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an abutment the slots between the pair of strips, to form ver- 5 block mounted at one end of a door-supporting tical abutment faces 32 for one edge of flooring 35 strip. sections mounted on the girders `as presently de- Referring more in detail to the drawings: scribed. The abutment lugs are secured to the I0 designates jointed elongated base or floorstrips by bolts 34.

supporting members each comprising hingedly Brackets 36 fixed t0 the upper edge faces 0f 40 connected end abutting pairs of parallel spaced the strips at the opposite ends of the girders 40 strips I2 and I4 having substantial width and from the abutments 28 support shafts 38 forming arranged on edge to form tying girders. Spacing pivotal mountings for internally threaded sleeves blocks I5 are located between thestrips of each 40, and screws 42 mounted in the sleeves have pair and fixed thereto by pins I6 to hold the swivel heads 44 engageable with one side of the strips together. Footing blocks or pillars l1, IB- iiooring to clamp the ilooring against the anchor 45 and I9 are provided with central upwardly pro-4 block abutments. jecting tongues 20 insertable in the slots formed The surfacing members of the floor include by the spaced strips and forming shoulders 22 on frames comprising parallel spaced bars such as which the strips may rest. 46 and 48, and sets of spacing blocks or strips 50 The pillars Il are mounted in similar ends of 5I)v and 52 located between the bars and in stag- 50 hinged pairs of strips, the pillars I8 are located` gered relation to permit clamping rods 54 to pass at the joints, and the pillars I9 are located in alternately behind and in front of adjacent slightly spaced relation with the` opposite ends blocks as best shown in Fig. 3. of the hinged pairs of strips to leave the ends of The rods are straight and located in holes in.

the slots free for mounting anchor members or the frame bars and have anchor means on oppo- 55- site ends engaging outer faces of outside bars of each frame, for example nuts 56 threaded on the ends of the rods which may be moved to tightly clamp the frame bars and spacing blocks in assembled relation.

The oor frames may consist of any desired number of parallel bars and sets of spacing blocks, and preferably will include at least four bars and two longitudinally spaced sets of blocks to provide a floor section of substantial area that will be light in weight and held together to form a unit.

In Fig. 3 a frame is shown having ve bars and two sets of spacing blocks. Attention is called to the alignment of the first and third blocks and second and fourth blocks in the set exposed in the figure, whereby any tension or stress due to tightening of the nut on the bolt will be substantially equally distributed on both sides of the bolt and distortion of the frame will be avoided. The bars and blocks comprise strips of wood having substantial width and arranged on edge, whereby the ends of the blocks abut the sides of the bars, and stiifen the structure against Vertical bending strains.

The plurality of bars comprising the type of frame shown in Fig. 3, are preferably arranged ingroups of differently spaced bars whereby two bars at one side of a frame may be narrowly spaced to add rigidity and form socket-like recesses into which the ends of adjacent frame members may extend.

Another type of oor frame is shown at the lower right hand corner of the oor in Fig. l, having the same width as the above described frame, and substantially equally spaced bars, including intermediate bars arranged in staggered relation with the intermediate bars of the aligned frame as clearly shown in the gure.

The inner ends of the intermediate bars of each frame extend beyond the ends of side bars, andside bars of end abutting frames abut and are located on the relatively wide support formed by spaced strips I2 and I4' of the girdersand the intermediate bars overlap and extend substantial distances beyond the supporting girders. The

outer ends of all bars of a frame at one end of a fioor assembly are aligned as indicated -at the left end o-f Figs. l and 3.

Flooring is laidy transversely on the frames including boards Bil having end edges registering with the outer faces of the longitudinal side bars as shown inrFigs. 1 and 3 for side edges of a oor assembly, and opposite ends projecting beyond the opposite longitudinal side bar. Alternate boards are elongated to provide projecting tongues 62 and notches 64 between the tongues whereby the tongues of one floor section may be mounted in the notches of another to interlock the edge abutting sections as shown in Fig. 1, and form a dovetailed oor.

Attentionis called to the close proximity of the ends of the shorter boards to the side bars of the frames whereby two frames may be laid relatively close together and the free ends of the boards will extend relatively short distances` from the supports.

'Ihe dovetailed or interlocking relation of side edge abutting oor sections therefore not only avoids a continuous crack in the iioor but assures substantial support for at least half of the projecting board ends.

The rigidity of the longitudinal area of the floor between adjacent side members of adjacent oor frames is further 'promoted by the use of oor boards having edge grooves 66 and tongues 68 seated in the grooves whereby the tongues help to support the free ends of the boards.

The boards are preferably toe-nailed to the frame bars in the usual manner of laying oors, to form flooring sections that may be laid on the girders and moved slidably thereon into desired position.

Attention is particularly called to the differential lengths of oor frames and assemblies of surfacing boards nailed thereto, whereby adjacent longitudinaliy arranged floor sections overlap, as indicated in Fig. 1. The floor Shown in this figure includes ve pointed tying girders or ioor supporting members, and three longitudinal series of oor frames or sections arranged side by side. The intermediate series of oor sections has boards dovetailed with boards of the adjacent outer sections. The end floor sections of this intermediate series, shown at the right and left ends of the figure, are shorter than the adjacent outside sections, and a long section extends. between the two short sections to complete the middle series of floor sections. The joint 'ill between end-abutting intermediate floor sections thus lies between the ends of the adjacent outside floor sections, and the joint 'l2 between end-abutting outside sections lies between the ends of the long intermediate section.

It is apparent therefore that the joints of adjacent floor sections are staggered or broken, and that when the ends of floor boards of adjacent floor sections are interlocked in dovetailed relation, the longitudinally aligned sections of a series will be held rmly together. The use of supplementary means such as bolts or cables for preventing separation of end abutting floor sections is thus obviated. When the laterally operating clamps have been set to hold the series of sections against lateral displacement, the dovetailed oor boards will securely lock all of the floor sections against displacement on the girders.

In order to square the assembly of girders and assure parallelism and proper spacing therebetween, vertical sockets or holes T4 are formed in the strips I2 and i4 at numerous positions therealong, and downbent ends 16 ofV spacing bars 'I8 are mounted in selected sockets as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and similar hook-like orv anchor ends of diagonal bars 80 are mounted in other of said sockets to maintain the girders parallel.

Recesses 82 formed in the upper faces of the strips adjacent the sockets form seats for offsetting the bars below the plane of the upper surfaces of the girders to permit the oor sections to lie on the girders and slide thereover.

The use of spacing and squaring bars further assures alignment of the abutment faces 32 of the anchor blocks in a vertical plane, so that the outer edge of an assembly of floor sections may accurately overlie the faces of the abutments and be pressed thereagainst by the clamps.

The spacing bars are preferably distributed alonga pair of adjacent girders so that each member of a jointed. girder will be connected by one or more bars with a member of an adjacent jointed girder. A single diagonal bar Will be sufficient to square a pair of girders.

In using the invention the supporting girders may be constructed and assembled with sufficient hinged arms or sections to provide a support for a floor of a desired area; in the illustrated application of the invention, each of the five iioor supporting girdersV consistingv of two arms. The

girders may therefore be folded into one-half the length of the extended base.

A suitable number of frames provided with surfacing boards xed thereto may be arranged on spaced supporting girders, the projecting ends of :frame bars extending beneath the boards of end-abutting iioor sections 'and between the bars of said sections, and side frame bars in end abutting relation with the similar bars of end abutting sections.

The several frames may be moved longitudinally on the girders to effect assembly and to engage the tongue of a board at the end of one section in the groove of the board of the next end abutting section, as suggested at 10 and 12 in Fig. 1. The sections may be shifted laterally to effect interlocking engagement between abutting longitudinal edges of the sections, so that each pair of endabutting sections may be locked together by the dovetailed engagement of an 4adjacent single section with said pair of sections.

The screws mounted on the outer ends of the girders may then be operated to engage the heads thereof with the outer faces of the side bars of adjacent oor sections and operation of the screws will shift the entire assembly of iioor sections laterally into engagement with the anchors at the opposite side of the assembly.

Operation of the screws will further press the side edge tongues of floor sections into the notches of edge-abutting sections and thus enforce the interlocking relation of the sections and make tight joints between edge-abutting sections.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A sectional iioor including a plurality of supporting members each consisting of hinged sections and having aligning recesses at said hinge connections, pillars supporting said members and provided with tongues engaging in the aligning recesses and overlapping said hinge connections to prevent hinging movement of the supporting members, a plurality of floor sections mounted on said members, and means mounted on the supporting members for retaining the oor sections in abutting relation.

2. A sectional oor comprising supporting members, each including a plurality of hingedly connected sections comprising spaced strips and means for retaining the strips in spaced relation, pillars supporting said members and having portions extending between said spaced strips at said hinge connections and floor sections mountable on said supporting members.

3. In a sectional iioor including girders and ooring mountable on the girders, anchors at one end of the girders, and screws threadedly engaged with the opposite end of the girders for clamping the flooring to said anchors.

4. In a sectional fioor, a surfacing member, supporting means including a plurality of spaced members, anchors xed to one of the outer ends of said supporting members, and means including brackets mounted on the opposite ends of said supporting members and screws threaded in the brackets for clamping the surfacing member to the supporting means.

5. In a sectional iioor, supporting means including a pair of girders and abutments at the outer ends of the girders, a plurality of members having portions engageable with the girders for aligning the abutments, a floor section for mounting on the girders to engage the abutments, and means for holding the oor section in engagement with the abutments.

6. A'oor support including a girder comprising a pair of sections having spaced portions at the ends thereof, means hinging the sections in abutting relation, and means closely engaging between said spaced portions and overlapping said hinged connection to prevent hinging movement of the girder sections.

7. A floor support including a girder comprising sections having spaced parallel members, means for retaining said members in fixed spaced relation, means for hinging the sections together, and key means engageable between said members and overlapping said hinge connection for preventing hinging movement of said sections.

8. A floor support including a girder comprising a pair of sections having spaced portions at the ends thereof, means hinging the sections in abutting relation, key means engaging between said spaced portions at the hinged connection for preventing hinging movement of said sections, an anchoring member mounted on the end of one of the sections, and a clamping screw member mounted on the opposite end of the other section for clamping a floor therebetween on the girder.

9. A iioor support including a girder comprising a pair of sections having spaced portions at the ends thereof, means hinging the sections in abutting relation, means engaging between said spaced portions and overlapping the hinged connection for preventing hinging movement of said sections from extended abutting alignment, an anchor having a depending tongue portion extending between the spaced portion at the outer end of one of the sections, means for securing said tongue to said section, and a clamping screw fixed to the outer end of the other section for cooperating with the anchor to clamp a floor therebetween on the girder.

CHARLES TRAMILL. 

